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Question: Were the Marines at American embassies in the Middle East not allowed to be armed?
Answer: Presidential campaigns lead some people to politicize everything and the tragedy in Libya is no exception.
Bloggers and users on Twitter and Facebook were quick to circulate claims that the Marines in Cairo, Egypt, and Benghazi, Libya, were not permitted to be armed. The story went that the U.S. ambassador to Egypt told the Marines they couldnít use their weapons.
It turns out the Marines in Cairo were armed. Both Mother Jones magazine and Fox News -- two news sources at opposite ends of the political spectrum -- talked to Marines spokesmen who confirmed there were no restrictions on weapons or weapons status.
In Libya, the consulate in Benghazi did not have Marines stationed there -- the security was supposed to be provided by the Libyans.
Finally, itís something of a misnomer that the primary mission of the Marines is to protect the embassy. Thatís the responsibility of the host country. In the event of a crisis, the Marines will certainly do their best, but their main mission is ďto provide internal security at designated U.S. diplomatic and consular facilities in order to prevent the compromise of classified material vital to the national security of the United States,Ē according to the Marines Corps Embassy Security Group.Jeffrey Bruner is the wire chief for the Gannett National Wire Desk in Des Moines.

This is a letter to the editor of small newspaper.

Letter: Why were U.S. security forces for the consulate in Benghazi lacking?
Each day I am continually confused as to the position of our president, the secretary of state and the State Department in general with whether the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi was an organized terrorist attack or a spontaneous attack allegedly triggered by outrage over an anti-Muslim film.
The real problem is a small group; a few people or a group overran the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, and caused the death of Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other staff members.
The question is why a tragic lack of security at the Benghazi mission was allowed and why did a U.S. regional diplomatic officer feel that local Libyan militia were sufficient to guard the station?
We now have U.S. Marines at the location. Why they were not deployed to that sensitive area before?

Similar to Stans question.

A reply;

So, how many troops would you suggest be posted at each embassy?
Squad, platoon, company, brigade, division.
What would you suggest they be armed with?
Small arms, shoulder fired missiles, crew served heavy weapons, armor, aircraft. It`s the host countries responsibility to provide the security for foreign embassy grounds and staff.

One cannot reason someone out of something they were not reasoned into. - Jonathan Swift

In all fairness, we may have offended a Muslim had we stepped up security.

Just sayin'............

I think we need to go to war...the other two are about over and we need to hear a daily body count to feel alive don't we. I'm sure the Chinese will lend us the money or we can cut our mothers and fathers SS checks to pay for part of it. Unemployment will go down as we build the weapons and employee young men in the ME and we will have fewer young men looking for work as they give up their lives for freedom and liberty.

I think we need to go to war...the other two are about over and we need to hear a daily body count to feel alive don't we. I'm sure the Chinese will lend us the money or we can cut our mothers and fathers SS checks to pay for part of it. Unemployment will go down as we build the weapons and employee young men in the ME and we will have fewer young men looking for work as they give up their lives for freedom and liberty.

Get a fuc>ing clue please.

American lives apparently mean nothing to you. Repeat your above statement to the family of Chris stevens and his staff. You should go look in a mirror and repeat that and see if you actually like what you are looking at. Some of the tripe you spout turns my stomach.

american lives apparently mean nothing to you. Repeat your above statement to the family of chris stevens and his staff. You should go look in a mirror and repeat that and see if you actually like what you are looking at. Some of the tripe you spout turns my stomach.

American lives apparently mean nothing to you. Repeat your above statement to the family of Chris stevens and his staff. You should go look in a mirror and repeat that and see if you actually like what you are looking at. Some of the tripe you spout turns my stomach.

I'm pretty sure he nor his family would want more americans in harms way. Why is he more important than the other american's who lost their lives in the ME. What was the body count this week in Afganistan? Lets nuke them. Better yet lets get out of that part of the world and let them resolve their differences. They have only been trying for 2000+ years a few presidental terms are not going to fix it, and I'm sure Isreal can take care of itself too.

I'm pretty sure he nor his family would want more americans in harms way. Why is he more important than the other american's who lost their lives in the ME. What was the body count this week in Afganistan?.

Slowly more information is being revealed. We got the message that embassies and consulates are supposed to be protected by the host country. We now know that Libya provided no protection whatsoever.

It was not a small group of protestors. It was a large group of terrorists who pre-planned a well-armed assault.

We have now learned from Amb. Stevens' journal that he believed terrorism was growing and that he was on a hit list. What we don't know is when he wrote this in his journal. We don't know if he reported his concerns to the State Dept. or not.

Whether he did or not, the State Dept. should have made sure that Libya was providing protection to our embassy, our consulate, our ambassador and his staff.
It makes one wonder what protection has been provided by host countries elsewhere.

I am mystified as to why the President and the State Dept. continue to refer to the video as the reason for the attack in Libya. The only reason I can think of is ... they knew terrorism was building and they knew about the hit list, but did nothing about it. Blaming it on the video is their way out of responsibility. I don't think a lot of people are buying their video excuse.

Obviously the video angers muslims like many other things that have occured over there. I would agree that the video by itself is not the problem but it is part of the problem. As long as we are going to have americans in harms way over there, we need to use good judgement.

I don't think anyone is making excuses. They don't like us and as long as we involve ourselves in their affairs that is not going to change.

I'm sure every official we have in that part of the world is on someone's hit list, so don't sound surprised. Embassies have been bombed under every president that has held office during my lifetime. It is easier to attack them than us here, so trying to blame the president for this tragedy is just politics.

Obviously the video angers muslims like many other things that have occured over there. I would agree that the video by itself is not the problem but it is part of the problem. As long as we are going to have americans in harms way over there, we need to use good judgement.

I don't think anyone is making excuses. They don't like us and as long as we involve ourselves in their affairs that is not going to change.

I'm sure every official we have in that part of the world is on someone's hit list, so don't sound surprised. Embassies have been bombed under every president that has held office during my lifetime. It is easier to attack them than us here, so trying to blame the president for this tragedy is just politics.